


The White Knight and His Queen

by Maximilian_Alexander, Miraculous_Max (Maximilian_Alexander)



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Akumatized Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Akumatized Marinette Dupain-Cheng, F/M, Fluff, Happy Ending, Hawkmoth Defeat, Hurt/Comfort, Identity Reveal, Memory Loss, Panic Attacks, Partial Identity Reveal
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-03
Updated: 2019-12-22
Packaged: 2020-01-04 11:08:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18342452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maximilian_Alexander/pseuds/Maximilian_Alexander, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maximilian_Alexander/pseuds/Miraculous_Max
Summary: In the aftermath of their akumatisation, Marinette and Chat Noir piece together facts left behind, and come to realise that they had been no ordinary akuma.





	1. Chapter 1

Gradually, he blinks away the blinding white from his vision, feeling disoriented, a tad nauseous, and strangely drained of all the stress that he had built up when he had his arms around Marinette’s shoulders. He feels cold hard asphalt pressed against his cheek, and a sharp throb from his left temple, as though someone had beat him over the head.

The realisation that he has no idea how he ended up where he is dawns slower than it should. He pushes himself up, vision clearing enough that he can see Marinette across from him, also sprawled out against the ground, looking just as dazed as he felt. In her hand is the hilt of the foil she had been carrying earlier, but the blade missing. 

His breath stutters out as he finally comes to the realisation of what happened. 

“Muh- Marinette? Did we, god, _did I—?_ ”

She seems to come to the same realisation quickly, looking between the hilt in her hand and something by his feet, her hand reaching up to nervously fiddle with her earrings. He flicks his eyes in the same direction and finally sees the blade, and a white butterfly delicately perched on its tip. Ladybug must have been here, but why did she leave? Did- did her timer run out, is she coming back, was she _disappointed_ in him—

“Chat?”

He snaps his eyes towards the voice, Marinette gazing at him with concern. He knows distantly that he’s beginning to have a panic attack. All that stress that he thought was drained out of him, all that anxiety and frustration, it’s rushing back like a tidal wave and he’s struggling to keep his head above water—

“Kitty, kitty it’s okay.”

Marinette’s voice is soft and soothing, and her hand wraps around his clenched fist that’s grinding into the asphalt at his side. He tries to focus on the point of contact, a little startled by the familiarity of this despite never allowing himself to be this vulnerable in front of _Marinette_ before. 

“It’s alright, I’m right here. Can you breathe for me? Take a deep breath, okay? I’ll count it for you.”

He lets out a choked sob. Marinette squeezes his fist.

“Give me a deep breath through your nose, Chaton.”

He does.

“Hold it for one, two, three, four—”

She guides him through the breathing exercise. It feels like hours before he’s finally able to relax, and even then, his body feels jittery and heavy. Ladybug never came back, but Marinette stayed. He’s the hero, he _should_ have been helping _her_ , the civilian, but he—

“Kitty, look at me.”

His eyes instantly go up to look into hers. It’s the same beautiful shade of blue as Ladybug’s, with the same hypnotic twinkle and the same kindness. Marinette stares into his own for a moment, like she’s looking for something, and her brow crinkles as though she’s thinking hard. Just for a moment, her eyes flick to the small bag wrapped around her shoulder, hanging between them as she leans over him. 

“I need to tell you something,” she says. “Just so you— because—”

She scowls and looks down, cheeks turning pink, clearly frustrated with herself and her difficulty with coherent speech. His mouth twitches a little into a smile. He knows whatever she has to say is obviously important, but right now he wants to latch onto a thought that isn’t so heavy. That thought just happens to be _Marinette’s being cute again_. 

“I know what you’re thinking.”

Immediately his cheeks pinken, but then he realises she’s talking about what he was thinking _previously_. He flushes a bit more for his assumption. She doesn’t notice.

“I know you’re thinking that you’re the superhero, and you’re supposed to be better than this, and you must be angry at yourself and at Ladybug—”

“I’m not,” he coughs, clearing the gravel from his throat. “I’m not angry at Ladybug.”

She’s quiet for a moment, eyes focused down on the dirty ground between them. Slowly, she leans forward and presses her forehead against his chest.

“You should be.”

There’s a brief flare of anger at her statement, but he dismisses it in the wake of how vulnerable her voice sounds in that moment, almost self-deprecating. It’s confusing and he wants to understand, but he’s still shaky and his head feels like it’s full of cotton, so instead he unfurls his free hand and reaches out to hold her shoulders. 

They’re right back to where they were in the beginning.

The silence drags on. There’s _still_ no sign of Ladybug, and he gives up on hoping she’ll come back. He’s finally able to take in their surroundings more. A remote, dirty alleyway he doesn’t recognise, the sky orange and red as the sun begins the set. He doesn’t think it’s anywhere near the school or Marinette’s house. 

“I’m,” Marinette voice cuts through the silence. She pauses to lick her lips, deep in thought. “What if I told you that… That Ladybug was akumatised, too?”

He blinks slowly at that, trying to process the sentence. 

“What if I told you that she— That _Ladybug_ knows exactly how you’re feeling, and she’s embarrassed and so, _so_ disappointed in herself,” Marinette’s voice cracks, and she stops to take in a shaky breath, leaning away and turning her head to choke back tears. The hand she has wrapped around his fist is trembling. 

The cogs in his mind start turning. It takes several minutes before Marinette continues.

“What if I told you that Ladybug has been sitting right here with you, the entire time, because she would _**never**_ abandon you?”

Marinette’s voice is steady as she says that, head turning back to stare him in the eyes with a determination and conviction he _knows_ he’s seen before. 

“Because Ladybug and Chat Noir are partners. They rise together, they fall together, and I guess they… I guess they get akumatised together, huh?”

He lets out a wet laugh.

“Ma— My lady?”

She smiles, eyes shiny with unshed tears.

“Hi, kitty.”

He abandons all other thought as he gathers her into his arms and presses his head into the crook of her neck, laughing and crying all at the same time. One hand threads through her hair, undoing her pigtails, and the other holds firm around her waist, keeping her flat against his chest as he takes in that this is _real_ , that she’s _here_. That’s she’s _always_ been there, a constant in his life both in and out of the mask.

A dark purple pendant with light wings rests in place of the clenched fist Chat had against the ground, but both heroes are too busy to notice.


	2. Chapter 2

Once they had managed to calm down enough, Marinette had gathered both pieces of the ruined foil, staring oddly at the white butterfly. They both decided that it must have been the work of Master Fu, because how else had they managed to get cleansed? Besides, it’s just like the cryptic old man to run off after purifying them, instead of staying behind to talk.

Or maybe it’s _not_ like him?

Who knows. He’s a bit of a mystery. They’ll ask him later, when they go to retrieve Tikki, who was probably hiding out with the man while her chosen was busy. You know, being an akuma and all.

In the end, they suppose it doesn’t entirely matter. Neither of their Miraculous fell into the hands of Hawkmoth, after all, meaning that he clearly lost. So, on a much more relieved note, the two part ways, Marinette leaving Chat Noir behind as she runs out of the alley towards her home, insisting that she can run the distance by herself just fine. 

Chat’s stays in the alley for quite a while, grinning to himself in pure delight, and doing a happy wiggle dance as soon as Marinette can no longer see him. 

Ladybug is Marinette.

Marinette is Ladybug.

Marinette fights akuma by his side on a daily basis, reassured the entirety of Paris that she would always be there to keep them safe, rode a freaking _**dragon**_ , and saved his life more times than he can count. 

Ladybug loves pink and fashion, has designed an album cover and shades for _Jagged Stone_ , won a design contest held by his father, got offered an apprenticeship from _Audrey Bourgeois_ herself (which she had to turn down because _she’s Ladybug_ ), and gave him an _autograph_.

Oh sweet camembert, he has her _**autograph!!!**_

He jumps up and down for a moment in joy, but stops as his foot lands on something hard and round. He glances down, still grinning, and looks away to think more on the fact that _Ladybug is Marinette_ and _Marinette is Ladybug_ a—

And then his brain catches up with what he just saw.

His head snaps back to the object on the dirty alley floor, grin washing away as shock takes over. His eyes widen and his breath catches in his throat, because _there’s no way, that can’t possibly be_ —

The Butterfly Miraculous rests there on the ground, reflecting the innocent reddish glow of the now-sunless sky.

* * *

Marinette sighs as she makes it home, basking in the warmth of her parents’ hugs. They say something about being so _proud_ of her, that she’s so _brave_ and _heroic_ , and she doesn’t necessarily understand why they’re throwing down so many compliments just to comfort her, but she doesn’t say anything to dissuade them, especially when her mother offers to cook her favourite meal for dinner.

After climbing up into her room, she collapses onto her bed, limbs feeling heavy as the exhaustion from today finally weighs on her. Too tired to move, even to retrieve her phone, and with no Tikki to speak with, she instead stares up at the ceiling and thinks.

Chat Noir knows her identity now.

Her expression slowly morphs into a pleased grin as she remembers his reaction. She may have broken a rule, but she doesn’t regret it for a second, not after that. He looked absolutely ecstatic, like he could barely contain himself, and his joy was just so contagious she couldn’t help but to laugh along with him. 

Her cheeks burn as she flips her body around, buries her head into the soft covers, and giggles, kicking her feet a little against the bed. It’s been a long time since she’s been this giddy. She thinks the last time she felt this way was when Adrien had slow danced with her, and even that was nowhere near the intensity she felt now.

She doesn’t want to think too hard on _why_ she’s so overjoyed by his reaction. That’ll just complicate things, and today was already filled with enough chaos as is, regardless if she remembers it or not. Instead, she just enjoys the memory, replaying the look in his eyes and the feeling of his arms wrapping around her, like she’s the most precious thing in the world.

Soon enough, she gathers enough energy to get up and make her way back down to her desk, where she left her bag. Alya was probably worried, after all— her best friend got akumatised along with a _superhero_. She’s also pretty sure she needs to call Fu so he can send Tikki back. She’ll need to reverse the damage done to the city, although she hadn’t seen any damage on the way home. 

Slumping onto her desk chair, she opens up the clasp to her bag and peers inside.

Her breath hitches.

There, resting face-up in her tiny pink bag, was a peacock pendant she’s only ever seen in the ancient pages of a book.

* * *

Chat Noir’s lungs _burn_ as he rushes towards the familiar bakery, passing by fast enough that any citizen looking up would only see a second’s worth of a black smear across the sky.

In his hand, he carried the Butterfly Miraculous.

He has no idea what to think. He has no idea what he had done. It’s a terrifying thought, that he and Marinette had somehow managed to defeat their greatest enemy but don’t even remember _how_ they did it, or _who_ he is, or _what_ happened to him—

Good God. What if they _**killed**_ him?

Akumas have done it before. Akumas are violent and don’t think about the consequences of their actions. Akumas are even willing to hurt the people they would normally care about. His own father had tried to attack him when he was akumatised, after all. 

Would Ladybug’s magic be able to bring the villain back from the dead this time? Or did they need to actually _capture_ the akuma in order to do that? And if Ladybug’s magic was used, that wouldn’t put _everything_ back the way it was, would it? Because then they’d not only bring Hawkmoth back to life, but they might possibly be handing him back the Butterfly Miraculous as well, and they _**can’t do that**_. 

He’s getting ahead of himself. He doesn’t even know if Hawkmoth is dead or not. Still, the possibility is there, and it _terrifies_ him. 

He slows to a stop on the roof of a building just a jump away from Marinette’s balcony, not wanting to crash into the the girl’s spool table or garden, and just as he prepares for one final jump, the hatch slams open, Marinette scrambling out of her room with a wide-eyed look on her face.

Her eyes find his almost instantly, without even trying. 

He makes the final leap.


	3. Chapter 3

Chat Noir can only stare as Marinette paces back and forth, sitting cross-legged on her chaise lounge. She’s rambling, irrational anxiety-induced hypotheticals leaving her lips at a breakneck speed, hands clutching her pigtails and pulling harder and harder at them as she works herself into a frenzy. In other words, she was _freaking the fuck out_.

And here he had thought that  _ **he**_ had been getting ahead of himself. Marinette seems on a whole other level. Freak outs seem to be her specialty. 

As soon as his feet had touched her balcony floor earlier, Marinette had grabbed him by the bell and _dragged_ him right into her room. She wasn’t necessarily calm back then, per se, but she certainly wasn’t this level of stressed. He understands on some level, especially after seeing her waving around what seems to be the Peacock Miraculous in her hand, but he still finds it to be a rather strange spectacle. 

Marinette seems to have a habit of deliberately working herself into a panic. 

It’s odd enough that he momentarily forgets his own stress in favor of observing. 

He believes that Marinette and Ladybug are the same person. They’re alike in so many ways it’s hard _not_ to believe it. Even if he weren’t Chat Noir, even if Marinette had just claimed to be the spotted superheroine one day out of nowhere, he would have believed it in a second. Marinette is a natural born leader, proven in moments like when she had organised a retake of the class photo, or when she ran for class president. 

But there’s also differences. Marinette, outside of the mask, was always a bit flustered, one way or the other. He remembers as Ladybug she had only ever truly acted like that in the beginning, when they had started off their newfound careers as superheroes. Now, Ladybug seems to have a knack for brushing off her inner battles to focus on the _real_ battle at hand. 

When he thinks about it hard enough, he remembers smaller moments that he’s seen Marinette have similar panics like this. He was never really near enough to talk to her about them at the times, but he’s seen Alya and some of the other girls in class comforting her in those moments.

It’s a good thing for him that he speaks Marinette babble. Maybe he can do the comforting thing himself.

“Marinette?”

His interruption surprised her enough that she trips on air, falls forward, and _smacks_ her forehead against the side of her desk. Soon after that, her chin collides with the floorboards with a hollow thunk.

Maybe the comforting idea was a bad one.

“ _Owwww,_ ” Marinette moans, brushing off Chat’s attempts to help her up. “God, I’m such a klutz.”

“Clearly you’re not _that_ bad, if you can go around in a skintight spotted suit and beat up super villains on rooftops on a day to day basis.”

Marinette cracks a grin at that even as she rubs at the bruises on her forehead and chin, which Chat Noir counts as a win. He flops back down onto the chaise with a satisfied expression.

“Those skintight suits are _superpowered_ , Chaton, don’t you forget that,” she says, picking herself up off the ground. “I’m nowhere near as graceful out of the spots. You better get used to it, I’m going to be in pink more often than red from now on.”

He almost wants to be disappointed at the thought, but knowing she’s Marinette is enough. If he hadn’t known her identity, well… He’d be much more worried. Ladybug is one of his best friends, and having to not see her daily like usual would have definitely been upsetting.

Still, while he’s not disappointed, he _**is**_ worried about something else entirely.

“Is it possible for you to use your restoration magic?”

Marinette cocks an eyebrow at that, and he elaborates.

“I mean, you didn’t necessarily capture the akuma, right? And if you restore everything back to how it used to be before we became… _whatever it was we became_ , then Hawkmoth and the other Peacock holder would have the miraculous back, which would put us right back to where we started. But the city could also blame us for any damages—”

“Chat Noir, the restoration magic doesn’t work on the Miraculous.”

He blinks in surprise.

“What?”

There’s a rather sheepish grin on her face as she says that, her fingers fiddling together behind her back. 

“I, uh… I had to find that out the hard way.”

“ _ **What?**_ ”

He didn’t raise his voice, but Marinette flinches anyways. 

“That’s… _kind of_ how Chloé got the Bee Miraculous? I just assumed it would be back in Master Fu’s hands when I casted the spell. If I had known, I probably would have made Adrien wait for a bit while I went searching for the comb, but…”

It only strikes him the moment Marinette says his name that he hadn’t told her his identity yet. 

The thought of revealing himself to her later is just another thing for him to get anxious about, so he pushes it to the back-burner. It’s not as important right this moment.

“So it’s safe to fix everything?”

Marinette grimaces.

“The problem is that I don’t actually know if I _**can**_ fix everything.”

He frowns and crosses his arms. Right. She was too busy being akumatised to purify the akuma herself, so…

“Okay, but Plagg can use cataclysm without me being transformed to do it for him. Do you think Tikki was the one who purified the akuma with Master Fu? Do you think she could cast the spell herself?”

“If she could, you’d think she’d do it by herself already, right?” Marinette sits beside him and copies his posture, frowning herself. “And… When the Kwami do it, it’s _**way**_ more powerful than it’d usually be if the power was channeled through _us_. So if Tikki did it, do you think it would actually work on the Miraculous this time?”

His expression speaks for him. He does _not_  want to test that theory.

And he knows, if Hawkmoth is actually… **dead**. He knows that they _still_ won’t test this theory. Because if it gives Hawkmoth the brooch back, Master Fu absolutely _will not allow it_. The decision in that scenario would be clear. He and Marinette would have to live the rest of their lives with the knowledge that they had _**murdered**_ some faceless, unnamed man. 

That is, _if_ he’s dead.

All this speculation is getting them absolutely nowhere. They need _answers_.

“I think we should—”

“ _Marinette! Dinner is ready!_ ”

They both jump and turn towards the trap door. Chat Noir’s ear twitches, quickly alerting him, and he only manages to scramble to the railing next to Marinette’s bed before the hatch swings open. 

“ _Oh!_ ”

For a woman who just caught a leather-clad boy who had snuck into her daughter’s room, Sabine Cheng seems strangely delighted. 

“Chat Noir! Oh, you _must_ join us! We’ve made plenty of party treats downstairs. You might want to stay out of Marinette’s way when it comes to the sesame balls, though, they’re a favourite of hers.”

Both Marinette and Chat Noir share a look, both baffled by the reaction.

This… This was _weird_ , right?


	4. Chapter 4

Chat Noir finds himself sitting rather awkwardly beside Marinette’s father at the dinner table. It’s crowded with a wide assortment of foods, and while he’s practically drooling at the sight, he can’t find it in himself to start eating when he’s feeling like he shouldn’t even be here at all.

Tom’s reaction to Chat Noir made sense. _**Sabine’s**_ was downright bizarre, and certainly out of character, if Marinette’s expression was anything to go by. She’s been staring at her mother as if the woman’s been replaced by an alien fake for the last ten minutes.

“I made all of your favorites, dear,” Sabine says, still arranging the plates so that there’s more room on the table. “Tofu spring rolls, steamed salmon, sesame balls, pork dumplings— oh, don’t worry about having to eat that if you can’t, Chat Noir, we also have chicken dumplings.”

Chat blushes at that, realising he made a face. Pork dumplings are  _not_ kosher.

“And I even bought some of those dolmas you love so much! Didn’t have time to make those from scratch, but I have a feeling you would have preferred the store-bought ones anyways.”

As Marinette’s mother continues to list all the food spread out, Chat finds himself glancing towards the TV not far from the table. Tom had turned it on for background noise, he said. So when everyone starts eating, the silence doesn’t feel awkward. 

It’s an old Italian movie he doesn’t really understand. Well, Tom probably understands it, so it may not completely be just background noise. Personally, he would have chosen the news, but—

 _Oh_. Now _**that’s**_ an idea.

“Um, Monsieur Dupain?”

Tom quickly turns and grins at him with a fanboyish glee, probably once again fantasizing about the Dupain-Noir bakery now that the hero and his daughter had gotten akumatised together. 

He doesn’t know how to break it to Tom that he’s far more likely to take Marinette’s last name than the other way around. Not that… he’s ever thought of it, of course. Not deeply, at least. Only once or twice. He might have doodled it _once_ in his notebook during class, out of curiosity. Because he definitely does _not_ have a crush on Marinette Dupain-Cheng, since he likes La—

 ** _Wait_**. 

“ _U_ h _u_ m,” his voice cracks as he tries very hard to brush away the realisation, attempting to make a polite request. “Would it be alright if I could change the channel to the news? Since Ladybug hadn’t used her restoration magic, so—”

“Ah, of course, of course! Don’t worry, son, I’ll find a good station.”

It takes only a few seconds before Nadja Chamack’s familiar face lights up on the screen. Just beside her, there’s clear image of their akuma.

 _Whoa_ … 

Nothing about their akuma screams _**evil**_ or _**destructive**_ , not at first, second, _or_ third glance. Marinette’s hair is done up into a woven bun, with delicate pink butterfly pins scattered about it. She wears no mask, eyes wide open and chin raised as if to command a crowd. Her gown reminds him of the historically accurate redraw of Princess Aurore, except a lighter, gentler pink. Her dress is that of a kind and noble Princess, and yet, her expression and the way she holds herself demands a respect worthy of a Queen. 

He, in contrast, is dressed like a kind of knight he’s never quite seen before. A skintight white fabric covers his body, with a white metal breastplate woven into the material, as well as plates around his arms, shoulders, and legs. There’s flaws in the design, gaps between the metal plates that could easily be pierced through, but something about that seems like a dare. His yellow eyes scream the same thing his armor does. _Come and try it_. He stands behind Marinette, a rapier at his side. 

In the picture, there are many civilians on either of their sides. None of them are injured or frightened, simply standing and staring at the pair, staying out of their way as they march through the streets.

He forgets to listen to what Nadja is saying, and as a result is startled when the image suddenly takes up the whole screen, turning into a video. He briefly glances away and turns to look at Marinette, who also looks as though she had been startled out of a trance.

“Oh, I remember seeing this playing live,” Sabine says, noticing where the children’s attention is at. “I was so worried. I knew my baby was smart, and paired with a superhero, I thought you would be unstoppable. I was scared Hawkmoth was actually going to _win_ , this time. Can you believe it? You two sure showed me, of course.”

What was that supposed to mean, exactly? He wants to ask, but something definitely seems odd about this situation, and he isn’t sure if he should admit that he doesn’t remember a thing. Sabine is making it sound like they were easy akuma to beat, that Marinette wasn’t smart, that his power wasn’t so great. 

The fact that he had a _**sword**_ was an easy enough reason for him to believe that he most certainly was not easy to beat. Not with _his_ experience. And Marinette being Ladybug, the other half to his whole, there was no _way_ they weren’t a total _nightmare_. 

But there’s definitely something he’s missing. Something confusing.

Why were they simply walking through the streets at such a leisurely pace? Where were they going? Why hadn’t they simply given Hawkmoth their Miraculous yet? Why were they not causing a havoc, destroying everything in their path, making the public bend to their will?

_What were they **doing?**_

The video continues on, finally revealing exactly where the dual akuma is heading. They make it to a platform where the Mayor is standing, looking nervous, but not running away. The knightly version of him holds a hand out for his lady, and he politely helps her up the steps.

The camera zooms in as Marinette gets behind a microphone. Chat belatedly realises that the video actually has audio, but everyone had remained completely silent as Marinette had made her way onto the stage. 

“This part was clever of you, sweetheart,” Sabine says, smiling and kissing the top of her daughter’s head. “You really fooled everyone in Paris.”

 _Fooled?_ This was a trick, then? Didn’t Sabine imply earlier that Marinette was not as cunning as an akuma than she was normally?

When Marinette speaks, it’s almost as though the earth itself had gone quiet.

“What you see before you, today, is the White Knight, and I, his Queen. We have one goal in mind. A Miraculous we must obtain. We will find it whether this holder reveals themselves or not. We will battle them until our very last breaths. We will bring Paris into a peace it had not experienced since the beginning this war had begun.”

A shiver goes through his body, and if it weren’t for the fact that he knew who Marinette truly was, he knows he would have been absolutely terrified for his Lady. If it weren’t for a fact that Marinette was Ladybug herself, he would have believed that this, the Queen, was talking about defeating Paris’ last standing hero, fully confident in their ability to take them down, marking the defeat of good in a war against evil.

But she can’t possibly be talking about Ladybug, that much he knows now. No, while the entirety of Paris must have thought as such, she must have been talking about someone else, a different Miraculous user. This was the trick Sabine was talking about.

He presses a hand to his suit’s pocket, feeling the indent of the Butterfly brooch. 

This wasn’t simply a trick to fool Paris.

This was a trick to fool **Hawkmoth**. 

The pieces are clicking into place, one by one.

“I have one message for you, our final foe,” the Queen says. “We will defeat you. Your life will be spared, despite the numerous reasons it  _ **shouldn’t**_ be. I am a merciful Queen, after all. But you will be defeated, as swiftly and painlessly as possible. In fact…”

The Queen’s lips crook into a smile, confident and determined. Behind her, her White Knight grins.

“ _You won’t even know what hit you until it’s too late._ ”


	5. Chapter 5

Sabine prompts the children to begin eating, telling them to start before it gets cold, piling food on their plates without asking. They shovel food into their mouths to have an excuse not to speak, too busy keeping their eyes locked to the television screen before them. Reports of the events did not end there. Nadja Chamack is nowhere near finished, she continues to show amateur footage and pictures, reporting every detail she can, even the seemingly unimportant ones which would certainly be overanalyzed by others in the future, claiming to be behavioral professionals or something of the like.  

  
There would definitely be theorists, but Chat and Marinette won’t need to listen to those in order to figure out exactly what they had planned. It’ll be clear to them, once they get all the facts together. They know themselves best, after all.

  
There’s a video that plays right when Chat Noir pops a chicken dumpling in his mouth, and he nearly chokes at the angle. For a moment, it looks as though his Queen is kissing him, but the angle of the camera shifts enough that he can see that she’s merely leaning in and whispering something. Her gloved hand reaches up, brushes against her knight’s cheek, and covers his eyelids. It’s then that the final piece to this particular puzzle falls into place.

  
She had ordered him to find their target. And she had ordered him to keep his eyes closed for the entirety of it.

  
**_“You won’t even know what hit you until it’s too late.”_ **

  
And that’s exactly right. Hawkmoth would have been unable to see through the White Knight’s eyes as the akuma went out hunting for the man. The villain would have had no way of knowing what, exactly, his akuma had planned. He wouldn’t have seen the attack until the very last second, where recalling his akuma would have been too late at that point. 

  
But that only solves _this_ puzzle. How they had gotten the drop on Hawkmoth. How they supposedly retrieved the Butterfly Miraculous. But that doesn’t tell them who Hawkmoth is, or how they had obtained the Peacock Miraculous along with it. How _The Queen_ was the one in possession of it, when _the White Knight_ had been the one following orders.

  
Almost all video reports showed that the White Knight had been the one tearing across city rooftops and streets, listening, sniffing, searching out for their target. The Queen, for most of the time, had remained on the stage Mayor Bourgeois had set up. A seat had been brought up, and she sat there and answered questions with the grace and kindness an akuma was not typically known to possess.

  
Naturally, the first person who had the guts to start asking the akuma questions was Alya Césaire. 

  
“Who are you? Or, who were you ** _before_** you got akumatised?”

  
“I was, and _am_ , Marinette Dupain-Cheng,” the Queen replies, unable to keep back a smile in the face of her best friend. “I may be a Queen, but that’s simply a title, Alya. Without the substance, the characteristics of what makes me Marinette, being a Queen would mean nothing. The same could be said for you. If you weren’t Alya Césaire, who would you be? Just another journalist? That title has nothing to say about your drive, your integrity, or your intelligence.”

  
The phone in Alya’s hand is shaking. The video is being taken from someone else in the crowd, and you can clearly see the soft expression on the Ladyblogger’s face.

  
“Is it true that the White Knight is Chat Noir?”

  
“Yes,” his lady answered, smiling gently as she thinks back to how everything began. “I was very upset, and he was just passing by. He noticed and came to comfort me, called himself my knight in shining armor. But I kept venting, and something I said must have struck a chord in him. We were working ourselves up and trying very hard to calm down, but… I suppose we weren’t fast enough. That’s alright, though. Things have turned out for the better, no?”

  
As the Queen speaks, Chat Noir is munching on a dolma. His memory right before the incident has improved, listening to how the akuma described it. Before, the exact details were a little fuzzy, but now…

  
The weight of responsibilities is hard to ignore, especially when those responsibilities slowly, bit by bit, tear apart at your social life. He knows this from experience, and hearing Marinette vent about how she had missed the try outs for fencing, how she never seems to have time to enjoy other hobbies or to spend as much time with her friends, it _did_ indeed strike a chord in him. Rather badly, if he were being honest. 

  
 _He_ never got time to spend with his friends. A lot of his “hobbies” were involuntary. He has had to cancel on things he’s planned out for months simply because Hawkmoth couldn’t help terrorizing the city at **_that exact moment_**. He had been excited to hear that Marinette was going to try out for fencing again, because that meant he could spend more time with another friend, and to hear she lost her chance because the stupid akuma he and Ladybug had to deal with only moments earlier had gotten in Marinette’s way…

  
It was difficult to keep calm. He had gotten just as frustrated, wrapping an arm around the designer’s shoulders and fighting off tears that threatened to fall. It wasn’t fair. He loved being a hero, loved having an outlet where he could just be himself, but he has another life too. And it just wasn’t fair that he couldn’t spend as much of that life with people he cared about as often as he should. 

  
That’s going to change from now on, though… isn’t it?

  
Hawkmoth sure was dumb to give powers to people who were absolutely pissed off that his _bullshit_ was **_ruining their social lives_**. How the villain didn’t see it coming was beyond him.

  
More reporters and journalists, who had witnessed the ease of which the Queen had answered, started to follow example. The Queen answered them all, wording every answer carefully to not reveal her intentions.

  
“You know,” Tom says over a mouthful of dumplings, to which he gets a smack over the head for. He takes a moment to swallow and smiles sheepishly at Sabine before continuing. “There’s one question that was never really answered, and I know _why_ now, of course, but… I _am_ curious.”

  
“Papa,” Marinette groans. “We don’t need an interrogation right now!”

  
Under her breath, she says, “And I bet I know _exactly_ where this is going, too.”

  
Tom laughs and pats a meaty hand against Chat Noir’s back, nearly causing the boy to spit out all the fish in his mouth. 

  
“I’m not going to _interrogate_ you, sweetheart, don’t worry! It’s a simple question, that’s all.”

  
Marinette’s face morphs into a rather unimpressed expression, but she doesn’t make any further comments. 

  
“What happened with Ladybug? I mean, I understand why she never showed up, of course,” Tom says, about to shovel in more dumplings into his mouth. He stops at Sabine’s expression, once again realising they’re with a guest. “You two must have let her know you weren’t coming for _her_ , somehow. But how did you two do that? Not to mention, she never showed up _afterwards_ either, after Hawkmoth’s defeat.”

  
Marinette purses her lips and reaches up to touch her earrings.

  
“She, uh… She was there when the akuma got us,” Chat answers in Marinette’s place. It’s clear what she wants to say, but they can’t make that decision until they’ve spoken to Tikki and Master Fu. “We weren’t facing her, though, so Hawkmoth never figured it out. She agreed with the plan and let it run its course. She trusted us.”

  
Tom grins and nods, accepting the story. Now that he isn’t speaking, he immediately starts to gobble up some more of those pork dumplings. Sabine smiles and shakes her head.

  
“Alright then, enough talking,” Sabine says. She starts piling even more food onto Marinette and Chat Noir’s plates. “I want you both full by the end of the night! I’m sure all that heroism worked up an appetite, come on! Chat, sweetheart, try one of the spring rolls, I’m sure you’ll love it.”

  
The two flash twin, slightly tense smiles, and continue eating.


End file.
